The new partnership strategy focuses on maintaining a healthy pace of development
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2018— The World Bank Board of Directors approved three loans totaling US$145 million today to strengthen healthcare, improve roads and promote regularizing land titles in Nicaragua. It also approved the new 2018-2022 Partnership Strategy with that country.
These loans fit within the priorities of the new Country Partnership Strategy and Framework with Nicaragua, which focuses on maintaining the strong pace of development Nicaragua achieved in recent years. The country is among the fastest-growing economies in Latin America.
“The new Partnership Framework is aligned with the objectives of our government’s National Human Development Plan, which prioritizes better living conditions for our people, economic growth and more employment to reduce poverty,” said Iván Acosta, Minister of Finance and Public Credit.
The US$60 million “Project for Comprehensive Public Healthcare Service Delivery” will help expand the Community and Family Health Model nationwide to provide better healthcare services for women of reproductive age, children under age five, adults over age 50, adolescents and the Indigenous population.
The US$50 million “Project to Strengthen Property Rights in Nicaragua” will build on the work the World Bank has done with the Nicaraguan government since 2002. More than 500,000 people benefitted from land registration and titling activities, which improve the investment climate and increase economic opportunities for vulnerable groups living in poverty.
The Board of Directors also approved $35 million in additional financing for the “Project to Improve Rural and Urban Access” to complete highway construction in Macuelizo-Santa María in Nueva Segovia, Cárdenas-Colón in Rivas, and Malacatoya-Granada in Granada.
“Better jobs mean less poverty and our Partnership focuses on both investing in the human capital of Nicaraguans, health, education and skills, and on the private sector to create better paying jobs,” said Luis Constantino, World Bank representative in Nicaragua. “We prioritize working with young people, women, Indigenous populations, people of African descent, and in territories such as the dry belt and the Caribbean regions.”
There are three pillars of this partnership: improving job skills for those from disadvantaged groups, facilitating private investment for job creation, and strengthening public institutions to improve disaster and external economic crises risk management.
The strategy includes financing and technical assistance from the International Development Association as well as from the International Finance Corporation to develop the private sector. It prioritizes education, health, transportation, rural water and sanitation works, landholding, renewable energy and economic productivity.
The new investments are financed by the International Development Association, the World Bank entity that helps the poorest countries. The loans for the health and land-titling projects are for 30 years, while the road project is a 10-year loan.
Learn more about the work of the World Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean
